Quality of Diet Linked to Risk of T2DM Regardless of BMI Change

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Changes in diet quality correlate with subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes, and the association between diet quality changes and diabetes risk is only partly explained by body weight changes, according to a study published online Sept. 15 in Diabetes Care.

Sylvia H. Ley, Ph.D., from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues assessed changes in diet quality during a four-year period and the correlation with type 2 diabetes incidence. A total of 124,607 participants of the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), the NHS II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study were observed for ≥20 years.

"Improvement in overall diet quality is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas deterioration in diet quality is associated with a higher risk," the authors write. "The association between diet quality changes and diabetes risk is only partly explained by body weight changes."